Binding Love
by IWillBelieveIt
Summary: When the day comes for Dan and Zoe to bind themselves together, jitters keep them up at night, because anytime anything good happens to them, something always seems to happen that rips their happiness away. Luckily, they have friends to help them see that this time, this happiness isn't going anywhere. Ever. The much anticipated sequel to 'Not Just You'. One-shot.


**Hey guys! I know that a lot of you were hoping for 'Not Just You' to be made into a multi-chapter fic, but my heart really wasn't in it, so instead, I've decided to write a one-shot of Dan and Zoe's wedding. I really hope this doesn't disappoint. It's been at least three years since I've been to a wedding.**

* * *

Zoe, Keri and Aneisha collapsed on the couch, laughing, as Keri turned 'Hard Out Here' by Lily Allen down.

"Why _do _brides wear white?" Keri asked randomly.

Aneisha's eyebrows raised in amusement. "I think it's meant to symbolise purity."

"Well! That ship sailed _long _ago." Keri remarked, grinning. Zoe shoved at her sister as the three erupted into laughter. Zoe's smile slowly faded as her nerves started to kick in again, even after Aneisha and Keri continued grinning.

"No, no, no." Aneisha said, poking her best friend in the waist. "You are not being one of those brides who becomes a nervous wreck the night before she gets hitched."

"Neish!" Zoe groaned, dipping her head back and looking at her best friend.

"No buts." Aneisha replied.

Zoe groaned again. "Can't I just speak to him? Just three words?"

"_Yeah, _no." Aneisha replied. "Zoe, you two have done traditionally. Please, let me have this one. Please."

Zoe sighed, closing her eyes. "But what if –"

"Keri." Aneisha said, snapping her fingers. Immediately, Keri turned so she was facing her sister and pulled her around to look at her, focusing on making everything about her expression and body language as captivating as possible.

"Zoe." Keri said, her voice soft and soothing. Immediately, the anxiety drained from Zoe's face as she watched her sister, completely captivated as Keri said, "Do you remember when you came back after being gone for a year to find our sisters? Do you remember what Dan did?"

Zoe answer immediately, "He kissed me and told me that it was okay, that nothing had even changed. He still loved me and nothing could ever break that."

Keri nodded, smiling. "And this time tomorrow, you and Dan are going to be married and everything's going to be fine. Okay?"

"Okay." Zoe replied. Then she hit Keri. "Did you _seriously _just use The Voice on me?"

Keri grinned. "Well, you wouldn't listen any other way. Don't you feel better now, though?"

Zoe smiled, sitting back in her seat. "Yeah, I do." Then she turned to Aneisha. "I feel bad. I'm keeping you and Tom apart for tonight."

Aneisha smiled. "Don't worry about it, Zo. He can go without me for one night. And besides, we all get two weeks off thanks to your honeymoon, so we've got a whole two weeks to make up for what we miss tonight. And for the record, I know that Dan's freaking out just as much as you are." She added, looking down at her phone.

"How do you know that?"

Aneisha grinned, showing Zoe her phone. "Tom just texted me."

Zoe scanned her eyes over the latest text her friend had received; 'Figures. Dan's freaking out too.'

Zoe sighed, raking her fingers through her hair.

Across town, Dan was pacing the length of Tom's apartment, his blonde hair sticking up at odd angles.

"Jesus Christ, Dan. Just relax, sit down and have a beer." Tom said, holding up a bottle of alcohol, which Dan refused. "Usually, I end up drunk, Tom. Zoe won't be very impressed if I rock up to _our wedding _with a hangover."

Tom shrugged his agreement, quickly checking his phone. "For the record, Zoe's just as nervous as you are."

"_Thanks." _Dan said sarcastically.

Tom held up his beer, smiling. "Glad to be of service."

Dan groaned, falling into a chair as he ran his fingers through his blonde hair, which only made it stick up even more. Tom had to admit, his friend looked like a wreck.

"You know nothing's going to go wrong, don't you?" Tom asked. "I mean, Dan, seriously, this is _Zoe _we're talking about. She never does anything too out of the ordinary, does she?"

Dan raised his head, wearing an almost haunted expression in his blue eyes. "We never thought she'd _actually _leave to go find her sisters, but she did."

Tom sighed. Like his six-year-long disappearing act, Zoe's year-long absence was still, nearly seven years later, dangerous waters that they all generally steered clear of. While they were still in high school, Tom and Aneisha had never really understood _why_, after Zoe returned, the two had treated their relationship as if were fragile.

Only now was Tom beginning to understand why they had treated it that way, because he and Aneisha were treating their relationship in a similar manner.

"That was different." Tom said, pushing his empty beer bottle away.

"How?" Dan asked. "How was that different?"

"For one, you were sixteen. You are now twenty-three. And Dan, then, you weren't about to get married! Look me in the eye and tell me that Zoe isn't the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with." Tom said. Dan stared at his friend and then looked away, muttering, "Damn you, Tupper."

Tom grinned. "So what are you nervous about?"

"I don't know, it's just . . . I don't know." Dan said, sighing. "I guess it's because of all the shit Zo's had to go through. I mean, growing up in SKUL, finding out she's a clone of the Mastermind, finding out she has _eighty-six _sisters. I just . . . I don't want to let her down. Be anything less than she _needs _me to be."

"Dan, listen to me." Tom said, leaning forward. "When have you been anything _less _than what she's needed you to be? If you were going to let her down, Dan, you would have done it already. Eight years, Dan. Eight years and you've always been her everything. Anyone can see that. You've always protected her, looked after her. Dan, she left because she thought she wasn't good enough, that you needed someone better. She wouldn't have done that, at _sixteen years old, _for Christ's sake, if she didn't love you completely. Look at it this way – in less than twenty-four hours, you'll be standing at the end of that aisle, watching as Zoe walks down it in the most beautiful thing you've ever seen her wear."

"I don't even want to think about the dress right now." Dan said.

"Why? Because you'll tearing it off her tomorrow night?" Tom asked.

"Shut up, Tupper."

* * *

Dan and Zoe had had the most amazing of dates on the beach. Tom and Keri both liked to joke that the beach gave birth to their love. So it was only fitting that they would get married on the beach.

As Dan waited at the end of the aisle with Tom, his suit neat and worn properly for the first time in his life, he couldn't help remembering every little moment he'd ever shared with Zoe. He remembered the distrust he'd felt when he first met her. He remembered the brief time that he had spent viewing her as his best friend before he began to fall for her, before he began to regard her as the goddess she was. He recalled the day she'd returned from her year of absence, recalled the tears in her eyes as she told him that she was so, so sorry for leaving him the way she had, for having little contact with him. He remembered kissing her and holding her body to his. He remembered recalling that she felt smaller, or maybe he'd just gotten taller, in the year she'd been away. He remembered lying in bed with her that night, telling her everything that had happened. He remembered kissing her until they both saw stars and then he remembered waking up beside her the next morning. If that's how he woke up each morning, with her curled into his side, he would die a happy man.

Dan looked up as Tom kicked his shin lightly, seeing Keri walking down the aisle, wearing a long, sleeveless, light blue dress and carrying a bouquet of flowers. Behind her, Aneisha, dressed similarly, winked mischievously at Tom as she walked and behind her, Zoe, on Frank's arm, walking slowly being careful not to trip in her long dress. Dan quickly recalled everything he'd ever seen Zoe wear and he had to admit – this was the most beautiful of them all. It was white, obviously, and strapless and it hugged her figure until her hips, where it flared out gently. It was simple, but it also reminded Dan of a gown that Cinderella might have worn. Zoe's hair was curled so that it framed her delicate features and he noticed happily that she had on the bare minimum of makeup – just a little foundation to even out her complexion and mascara to make her eyes stand out.

"Look after her." Frank said as he handed Zoe over to Dan.

Although Frank wasn't Zoe's actual father, Dan treated him as though he was. "I will, sir."

Frank smiled and kissed Zoe on the cheek before he returned to his seat beside Stella, squeezing her hand tightly.

The ceremony was kind of a blur for both Dan and Zoe. When they looked back on it, all either of them could remember was saying "I do" and the incredible, epic kiss at the end that reinforced their 'Romeo and Juliet' nicknames that, against all odds, had stuck all throughout high school and the years that followed.

As they pulled away from their first kiss as husband and wife, Zoe looked around her happily. She'd just bound herself to him in every humanly possible way and everyone she loved was here to see it.

"I love you." Dan breathed, pushing a stray curl out of her eyes.

"I love you too. So, so much." Zoe replied, closing her eyes and pressing her mouth against his again. Dan made a happy, contented sound as he pulled her closer and the whole crowd erupted into applause.

* * *

Zoe sighed happily as she smiled, ducking her head forward so that her curls fell forward to conceal her face. She didn't want Dan to see that she kept looking at their rings, just to make sure that this was really happening.

"Have I told you I love you?' Dan asked her, his voice no more than a contented hum in her ear.

"Yes." Zoe said, smiling up at him. "Many, many times."

"Um, hello? Excuse me?" Keri's voice carried over the loudspeakers. Zoe turned and almost sighed when she saw her sister standing in one corner of the room, a microphone in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

"How much alcohol am I going to need for this?" Dan asked, following Zoe as she sat down at one of the tables.

"Being Keri, a lot." Zoe replied, smiling. As a waiter walked past, carrying a tray of wine glasses, Zoe plucked two off of it, handing one to Dan and keeping the other for herself.

"Well, I thought that I would start off with the speeches." Keri said.

"How much alcohol are we going to need for this speech?" Dan yelled.

Keri glanced from Dan, to her glass of wine before looking back at Dan and replying, "Well, I've had about two glasses of wine before I had the courage to get up here and say this, so I'm guessing you'll need a hell of a lot," which caused everyone to erupt into laughter.

"I'll be honest. Before I met Zoe, I'd spent a year hearing a hell of a lot about her and I thought she was going to be a raging bitch."

"Love you too!" Zoe yelled.

Keri smiled. "I'd spent a year thinking she was a horrible person, but when I met her, I found out that Zoe was the most beautiful and genuine person I'd ever met in my life. And I found that I knew no one who knew Dan as well as she did. In case you haven't noticed, Dan's moods are worse a female's on a _good _day, when he's away from Zoe. When he's with her, _Oh my God! He can actually smile!_ Now, there is actually a point to this. My point is . . . Dan's like a brother to me and Zoe actually is my sister. It makes me so happy to see them here today, breaking all the moulds that everyone's always put them in."

As she walked off, her audience clapping after her, Zoe turned over what her sister had said in her mind. She knew that by 'moulds' Keri meant what KORPS and SKUL thought the Mastermind's clones should have been. Zoe had just proved, in marrying Dan, that the clones were just like everybody else. They could be whoever they wanted to be.

Aneisha walked up next. Zoe tried to listen to everything her best friend was saying, but it was hard to maintain her concentration after what Keri had just said.

* * *

Zoe woke up to find sun warming the side of her face and fingers brushing across her right arm. She turned over and came face-to-face with Dan, who smiled up at her. Zoe noticed that his face looked more open, happier. Zoe pressed her mouth against his. She felt him smile into the kiss, his arms wrapping around her waist as he pulled her so she was lying on top of him.

When they pulled apart, Zoe rested her head on Dan's chest, tucking auburn hair behind her head. She could feel the faint thudding of his heartbeat against her cheek and she smiled, feeling her love for him swirling in her chest.

"I love you, Zoe Morgan." Dan breathed, kissing her hair.

Zoe smiled, twisting her head so she could see him. "That's the first time you've called me that."

"Do you like it?" Dan asked, resting his hand on her cheek. Zoe felt the cool metal of his wedding band against her skin and she smiled up at him. "I love it."


End file.
